During George Osborne’s time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, budgets were typically driven by an ideological commitment to reduce the size of the public sector. This made his budgets rather predictable.
Philip Hammond maintained the rhetoric of balanced budgets, although the tensions within his party resulting from Brexit negotiations constrained and guided his choices.
As the first budget by chancellor Rishi Sunak approaches, media commentators have offered their usual speculation on its likely contents. Across the political spectrum, a pejorative view of fiscal deficits, accompanied by value laden terminology has characterised these commentaries. An article in the Observer refers to the government's plans to "splash cash" in a "spending spree", while another in the Financial Times invokes the "black hole" metaphor to describe the mundane possibility of a larger than expected deficit.
